


Four

by SiReb_TStrei



Category: Original Work
Genre: ... but not really, Gen, Implied Death, Mentions of Death, POV First Person, Plot Twists, Self-Discovery, World History, narration, prose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25836142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SiReb_TStrei/pseuds/SiReb_TStrei
Summary: Everyone gets it wrong. Who we are, our stories, what we do. Supposedly we herald the end of the world. The apocalypse. Don't find comfort in such idiocy. The world has been ending since it first was born. And we have always been here.
Relationships: War & Death, War & Famine, War & Pestilence
Kudos: 1





	Four

In the beginning, there was life. Then, there was jealousy. And then, there was blood.  
When Lucifer was – disowned, as it were – I was born. I did not know for what reason, but there I am. Then the serpent whispered in Eve’s ear and in the blink of an eye I was there. Earth became my new home. I still did not know why.  
I got a glimpse of the reason when a son turned on his brother. Envy was his crime. Death was his sentence. At least my little brother knew his purpose right off the bat. A bite of forbidden fruit and boom. There my brother was, awaiting all humans at the end of their lives. My purpose could not be so easy, apparently.

Time passed. The earth rotated. My brother fetched many more souls. Old age was no longer good enough to kill the people off. I understood. I felt myself growing in every heart that beat on the earth. Most hid me away, tamed and controlled, never accessed. Some let me loose. They fed me and fed themselves and committed evil deeds. I had no name then, but I was there. Father opened the skies and water fell. Death had so many people to catch then. There wasn’t much for me to do.

Humans began to enslave others. Put them in cells, cramped, and festering. My brother and I were joined by another. We called him cousin. He caused many deaths with his children, microscopic as they were, outnumbering the humans by millions and millions. I thought the poor homo sapiens might truly be wiped out. They surprised us and continued to live. I continued to live. The slaves fought back against their masters. I felt myself grow and change. No longer was I the selfish thoughts and actions of individuals, I was part of something bigger, grander. I had cause. 

Groups of humans united into different factions. Leaders were put into positions of power. They claimed to want peace and unity, but they conspired with me in the dark. I began to give Death more work. I felt bad, my brother always seemed tired, and worn-down. But now I had my own work. And work I did.

Death, Pestilence, and I would often meet on great fields, with two or more groups of humans, armies they called themselves, squaring off. Each group had a ‘strategy’, a way to win. Some were brilliant, others insane, and many completely idiotic. For example, King Saul sent out a boy with a slingshot against a GIANT. A hardened and seasoned warrior who dwarfed the boy by at least twenty heads. Completely idiotic.  
Death collected the giant from the field five minutes later, and I was forced from the hearts of the Philistines by my Father. Pestilence laughed. Israel would stand a little longer, it seemed.

Sometimes the way the humans died disgusted me. Cousin Pestilence would often smirk at a body before letting his sons devour it. Brother death would sigh and collect them, taking them to Father. The one that disgusted me the most was when their bodies just gave up. Pestilence had gained a sister. She made the humans frail, weakened, their bodies turned against them. Their skeletal bodies made me angry.  
Hunger was a good motivation for humans to rebel. Selfish and selfless all at once. Their rulers abandoned them. So, the peasants made baskets to catch their heads.  
Hunger also deprived them of rational minds, deprived them of the ‘honor’ I had so desperately clung too in all the conflicts they made amongst themselves. Famine and I were not friends. She was Pestilence's sister. I refused to acknowledge her. (She continued to eat away the human’s lives and welfare and made Death work even more. I hated her.)

Only on two occasions did the four of us meet for longer than a few days. Two times had the peoples of earth rallied together to decimate the rest. The first silenced us all.  
Pestilence was scared for the first time I had seen. His children had killed far more before, but the idea of weaponizing them … his children were now my tools.  
Brother Death closed his eyes and shook his head. He chose not to watch. More than just soldiers were dying.  
Famine clenched her jaw as the humans rationed. They almost purposely starved themselves so that others could have more. She did not understand.  
I grew, steadily, and with goals in mind. I was on every human’s mind, in every heart. I was on every field, in every trench. The smells that reached me ignited my blood and I made sure the days lasted. I was beyond caring now.  
That was the first time.

The second, I relished in their fear. Men and women and children knew me. My brother, my cousin, the one I hate sat in fear of me as well. They had not seen what ravages I could truly unleash on the world till now.  
Famine wept. She had become my tool in the camps.  
Pestilence swarmed the hospitals as I filled them with anyone and everyone.  
Death stepped back. He was overwhelmed.  
When the ‘little boys’ fell and the innocents were atomized where they stood and generations felt the effects of those weapons, I stopped. My time was done for now. The humans of the earth separated and went home, what was left of them. I remained. I showed up every now and again. I am still here.

The wise humans fear me. They avoid me, if they can, with honeyed words and strained promises so easily broken. They use the threat of me to their advantage.  
The fools run toward me. They seek me out as a companion and friend. If they do not regret befriending me, they all die, eventually.  
The victims endure me. They do their best to survive. They run or they fight with hope and fear and desperation in their souls. They are the ones whom I care for. They are brave. They see me coming and raise their heads and prepare and weather my wrath. The victims lose those they love. They lose their homes. They lose their lives. At least they die with dignity and their humanity intact.  
Every human knows me. They harbor me in their hearts, ignorant to me they may be some days. I am there.  
Every human understands War.


End file.
